One-Shot: Spouses Sharing Skills
Peeta Mellark peered over the rim of the bushes, observing the rabbit gnawing on a walnut. He took a deep breath and readied the bow. Pulling the arrow back on the string, he let it fly. WHOOSH! The arrow went wide, going completely in the wrong direction and impaling into a tree 30 feet to the rabbit's right. Startled, the little creature disappeared into the underbrush.
"Damn!" Peeta cursed, standing up out of his crouch. "Either I'm doing something really wrong, or your bow just doesn't like me, sweetheart." He turned to Katniss, his beautiful wife, leaning against another tree steps away. Katniss gave him one of her rare, glorious laughs and a smug smile as she sauntered over to him.
"Nothing could dislike you, honey," she chuckled. "Therefore, assume you are doing something wrong. Can you guess what?"
Peeta pondered for a moment, even recreating his last shot before giving a helpless shrug.
Katniss grinned patiently. As a teacher, she would pass down what Gale and her father had taught her as a little girl. Lead your pupil through the steps, encouraging them to think for themselves until they come to the answer on their own.
"Get into your stance," she ordered. Her husband obeyed. Instantly, Katniss discovered it was not his stance that was off, per se – his feet were planted just as she had shown him. His posture was what was wonky.
She enveloped him in a hug from behind, holding him by the waist. "Straighten that back," she instructed. "Stomach muscles taught." She could feel the muscles in his lower torso tighten, only allowing herself to admire them briefly, lest sudden dirty thoughts distracted her from her task.
Katniss then moved her hands to Peeta's shoulders. "Elbow down," pressing the elbow of his bow arm down so it was streamlined to the rest of his body. Her fingers ran over the hand gripping the bow. "Relax the grip just slightly…." She noticed he was squinting. "And one more thing, dear - keep both eyes open when you shoot. You'll see twice as well." Peeta adjusted.
Just then, Katniss saw something out of her peripheral vision: a deer, positioned at ten o'clock, munching on some grass. It hadn't seen them.
"Peeta," she whispered in her husband's ear. "Without leaving your stance, turn about 75 degrees to the left. There! You see it?" He nodded.
"Now… feel the energy flowing through. Relax, darling. Take a deep breath, and on the exhale…. Release."
WHOOSH! The arrow flew swift and sure, and undeniably straight. It hit the deer right in its center rib, felling the creature instantly.
Peeta's tenseness deflated and he stared, before the most boyish grin appeared on his face. "I got it! I got it!"
He could barely say this before he felt a silky hand cup his chin and turn it back, before Katniss gave him the softest kiss on the lips. She pulled away with a beaming smile.
"Very good, my love. You're learning. That buck should feed half the district and us for a week, at least. How about this: for every bulls-eye, you get a kiss just like that. Deal?"
Peeta grinned and gave his wife a warm kiss in return. She hummed in pleasure against his mouth, deepening it briefly before they broke apart.
"Deal," Peeta agreed. "You'll make a hunter out of me yet, my sexy wife. How about another kiss for luck?"
Katniss just smirked coyly at her lover's seductive overtures. "Show me you can get back into a proper stance, Bread Boy. Then we'll see."
Peeta just shook his head and took his stance. Shouldn't bee too hard. Kills for kisses…. now where had he heard that before?...